Memento Mori

I have written rants about the need for radicalism in hardcore, or else it will just be another product for bored teenagers. As I am in my thirties I need to know that hardcore is not just about posturing. Be careful for what you wish for I thought when the ska-intro on this CD played. I fucking hate ska and so should you. But luckily this CD does not contain much ska, instead it has 13 in-your-face anarcho-punk hardcore songs!

Most of the songs are anarcho-punk songs, dealing broadly with the War on Terror and the New Order, and it seems Global Parasite subscribes to a conspirational view of the world where a powerful evil elite are in power over all of us, and everything we do. Phrases such as ‘mind control’, ‘big illusion’ and ‘9/11 was an inside job’ etc. I am sure Global Parasite’s intentions are all good ones but personally I think this is adding confusion to already complicated issues. Well, perhaps this is a bit unfair for it is clear that the band don’t know much either and that their main intentions are to provoke people to read up on things. Cf. the song ‘Realised’ for instance, with the lines ‘Research for yourself, Cos the truth is not told, Its only Realised!’ and the cod-intellectual angry man’s ‘Every fucking claim we make, don’t believe a word of it, don’t dismiss a word of it!’. Errr, mind control??

Anyway, ironically the song called ‘Operation: Blue Peter’, a conspirational theory rant about how the Government used MI5/MI6 undercover agents and agent provocateurs domestically in England in the War on Terror to create official enemies and a need for even more repressive politics, is a great hardcore song that reminds a bit of Dead Kennedys and Subhumans (both UK and Canada!). While DK and Subhumans may be considered generic, the definition of entry level punk, Global Parasite does this style with a lot more energy that it does seem to work surprisingly well and I find myself starting to stomp my feet.

There is a song called Cunt. It is a bit strange, I suppose it is a joke. Here’s some samples from the text:

Hey, bros, calm down a bit you’re scaring the kids for gods’ sake! You bunch of low level psychopaths!

All in all, I liked this. It’s absolutely very energetic and I can hear a lot of good intentions, even if I would have to say that I have heard this many, many times before. Oh, and that Dick from Subhumans is singing on some song here too…